My string of things breaking around me continues. I was all dressed for ballet class last night, got in my car, and then got that sadly familiar sound of a dead battery when I tried to start it. There was some whining of the "why does this always seem to happen when I need to go somewhere?" variety, and then I realized that of course it happens when I need to go somewhere because otherwise I wouldn't be in the car. Though what I meant was why does it seem to happen when I'm going to some scheduled event at night rather than during the day when I just want to get to Kroger or Target and can get something done about it then so the car will be there for me when I need to get to a scheduled event. But then I realized that I was fortunate that it died in my garage and didn't give me one more start so that I got to ballet class, but then it didn't start again when I needed to get home at 9 at night.
But this morning I called the roadside assistance that comes with my car insurance, got a jump start, drove up the hill to Wal-Mart and got a new battery. I did have to argue with those guys a bit because they didn't believe I needed a new battery with such low mileage, but I pointed out that most of my driving is short trips around my neighborhood, which is bad on batteries, and I'd rather not take the chance of trying to recharge it. With my last car, I tended to go through batteries at about the same rate as this. There are a few downsides to not commuting and to living in a very convenient place where everything I need is within a few miles of my house, and one of them is that it's really rough on car batteries. As a nice little silver lining for the day, while I was killing time waiting for them to put in the battery, I found that they had exactly the kind of light bulb I need for the fixture over my bathtub and that I haven't been able to find anywhere else. Most places only have the compact fluorescent, and that doesn't work well in this application. It takes forever to warm up and turn on fully, and that's a light that gets turned off and on often, usually getting turned off before it's on fully. So now I have a new car battery and decent light in my bathroom, and it didn't disrupt my schedule for the day too badly. Plus, I discovered after getting out of my dance clothes that my tights had shredded a bit in places. They're only four years old and delicate, so I don't know why they aren't in better shape now. I guess I'll add ballet tights to my shopping list. Sigh, one more thing breaking down on me now.
Although I'm happily single, it's times like these when a husband would be nice to have. Not so much because I need a man to take care of me or because I can't deal with things myself. It just gets tiring dealing with everything by myself all the time. It would be nice to occasionally be able to offload something. I have people in my life who are willing and able to help if there's a real crisis, but for something like this, it would have taken them longer to get to me than it took for me to deal with it, so there was no point in playing damsel in distress.
But there is some other good news. The print edition of No Quest for the Wicked is now available at CreateSpace. This is a direct link to CreateSpace. You can also get it through Amazon. It may take a few days for the paperback to show up on the Kindle page, and vice versa, so you have to search specifically for the paperback (or use that direct link).
And now for some Enchanted Inc. series questions:
In Much Ado, I wonder where Ari is?
She's still in custody. In an earlier draft, I did have a few scenes of her being questioned and using the opportunity to get under Katie's skin, but then in revisions I realized they didn't advance the plot, so they got cut. I don't really have any further plans for her at this time. I figure she got caught and is paying for her crimes.
In Don't Hex, what happened to the wizards that Rod signed up after the battle in the park?
They're learning to be proper wizards through a more authorized training program. There's a slight reference to the fact that this program exists in No Quest. I suppose it's something that I might use in the future, but for now, they're just students. They might be a good subject if I want to do a spinoff series.
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